Indulgence

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and I have a million excuses why. I won’t bore you with them, though. Instead, I’ll post a pic of my latest delicious meal: BBQ tofu pizza with pineapple, caramelized onions and cilantro.

The recipe is from my new favorite cookbook, Chloe’s Kitchen, by the vegan chef who won Cupcake Wars against other non-vegan cupcake competitors. Check it out!

This is one of my favorite tofu recipes. It requires a little planning and the use of “liquid smoke,” which most non-vegans probably do not have in their pantry, but they are well worth it.

The recipe is from one of my favorite blogs, Peas and Thank You. You can get the full recipe here. She encourages you to marinade the tofu for several hours, but I only did it for one hour this time and it was still delicious.

I said this over and over again the night I made it for my friend Laura’s 30th birthday party.

And would you be surprised to learn that I was not the only one talking about how good it was? And those folks were surprised when they found out it was vegan. Man did that make me feel proud.

The full recipe for the cashew-based, non-dairy cheese sauce is at this link, from the the Real Food Daily Cookbook. (You can use 3 tbs corn starch instead of agar agar flakes, and I don’t think 1/4 cup miso paste is necessary. I use about half of that.) Once you make the sauce, you mix it with about 20 ounces cooked elbow macaroni, bake for 15 minutes, then top with 3/4 cup bread crumbs, and bake for 10 more minutes.

It is not low-fat, low-calorie, or low-sodium, but it is delicious and less animals were harmed in the process. Even vegans get to indulge, and this is probably my favorite home-made indulgence.

It was the night before my birthday. Matt had just left for NYC for a conference, but earlier this weekend he had marinated and grilled tempeh. I’m already in birthday mode and not in the mood to cook.

Ingredients:

Tortilla chips

About 1/2 block of tempeh, marinated and grilled, then smashed

Hummus

Tomato, chopped

Salsa

Steps: Mix the smashed tempeh in a bowl with hummus. Spread on top of the chips, then top with tomato and salsa. So good I didn’t realize easy, vegan indulgence could be that easy.